Arts & Entertainment
Visiting virtuoso
Organist Cameron Carpenter makes D.C.-area debut next weekend
Cameron Carpenter, organist
Music Center at Strathmore
5301 Tucker Lane
North Bethesda, MD
April 12
8 p.m.
$25-40
301-581-5100
Strathmore.org
Cameroncarpenter.com
Organist Cameron Carpenter. (Photo by Heiko Laschitzki; courtesy Bucklesweet Media)
Organist Cameron Carpenter is a tangle of apparent contradictions.
On one hand, he’s made a slightly daring fashion sensibility a central component of his stage persona, yet in stage speech (banter is way too light a term for it) and conversation, he comes off as deadly earnest. But perhaps this says more about us — why do we tend to think that mohawks and sequins might indicate a less-than-intellectual musical mind?
Perhaps because he takes — in some ways — a rock star approach to being a serious (Juilliard-trained) classical musician and seems to delight in unorthodox and even iconoclastic approaches (his transcriptions of piano and orchestral works to the organ have elicited everything from critical awe to “is-this-a-joke?” reactions), Carpenter is a polarizing figure.
But get to know the queer, Berlin-based organist, follow his career over several years and play devil’s advocate with him — as we’ve done here — and you realize the creativity and talent he brings to it all far supercedes the reductions of dozens of articles and TV profiles around the world that have reduced him to little more than a “bad boy” or “modern-day Liberace.” Yes, there’s grumbling in more staid organ-world circles (one often notices a trend of rather bemused expressions when his name is uttered), but try to think of young organists who are sparking the kind of raves and career he has managed, and the list gets really, really short. He makes his Washington-area debut April 12 at the Strathmore.
Carpenter, in Georgia with a friend who’s having him give a private recital at a pipe organ this person has installed in his house, says he feels little pressure generally speaking. We chatted for about an hour in mid-March by phone.
“I am conscious of it at times and I sometimes have the sudden realization of deadlines coming up but though this may sound supremely arrogant, when I later manage to pull it off, I realize I should never have had any self doubt. I think this theory is sound … I try to stay away from getting too caught up in pressure and luckily I don’t get stage fright.”
Carpenter remains — a recurring theme — frustrated by constantly having to adapt to the organs in various concert halls around the world. Purists are skeptical, but Carpenter expects a touring organ he’s been working on for several years will be “built and launched” next year.
Of the grand tradition of grand organ building, Carpenter says what he’s trying to do doesn’t diminish those achievements.
“It’s not how many rooms full of wooden pipes there are or how many degrees someone has or how many works one has written for the organ,” he says. “It’s only interesting in terms of human emotion and how it makes us feel to be alive.”
He says constantly having to get accustomed to new organs has become maddening.
“The closest analogy I can come up with is if you made a film and every time you screened it, you had to recut the edit. There’s a staggering amount of work that goes into each minute of film. It would be almost unsustainable. That’s why touring for me is so very hard.”
Although it’s highly likely to change — Carpenter has been known to have programs printed, then play nothing listed on them — he says his Strathmore performance may contain an organ adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” Overture, perhaps some Marcel Dupre variations, a reimagining of a scherzo by Tchaikovsky and “maybe” some Liszt Transcendental Etudes.
“It all depends on the organ, which is as yet unknown,” he says.
Carpenter says he can’t relay details just yet, but an announcement about a new recording deal is imminent. His last album was 2010’s “Cameron Live!” release (a CD/DVD double album). A feature-length documentary on his life and work is also “very much in the planning stages,” he says.
“I don’t really see myself as someday having a recorded legacy of 70 CDs, but I do think it would be great if each of them … is something really personal and strong. … I’ve also wanted to wait until the right recording instrument would be available so I’ve been focusing most of my energy on that for now. I don’t have any particular compulsion to record just for its own sake.”
He says he appreciates media coverage immensely so objecting to superficial comparisons of performers from bygone eras isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“It is kind of knee-jerk and wildly reductive, but they can’t be blamed for trying to sell tickets,” he says. “I wouldn’t mind if I never hear the phrase ‘bad boy of the organ’ ever again but it’s a sad truism I guess.”
And of the Mohawk he’s been sporting of late, Carpenter says it’s here to stay at least for now.
“I think I’ve settled on something that hits a visual balance of elegance and style. It’s also the haircut of a warrior which is not inappropriate.”
Italy
Olympics Pride House ‘really important for the community’
Italy lags behind other European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights
The four Italian advocacy groups behind the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics’ Pride House hope to use the games to highlight the lack of LGBTQ rights in their country.
Arcigay, CIG Arcigay Milano, Milano Pride, and Pride Sport Milano organized the Pride House that is located in Milan’s MEET Digital Culture Center. The Washington Blade on Feb. 5 interviewed Pride House Project Manager Joseph Naklé.
Naklé in 2020 founded Peacox Basket Milano, Italy’s only LGBTQ basketball team. He also carried the Olympic torch through Milan shortly before he spoke with the Blade. (“Heated Rivalry” stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie last month participated in the torch relay in Feltre, a town in Italy’s Veneto region.)
Naklé said the promotion of LGBTQ rights in Italy is “actually our main objective.”
ILGA-Europe in its Rainbow Map 2025 notes same-sex couples lack full marriage rights in Italy, and the country’s hate crimes law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity. Italy does ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, but the country’s nondiscrimination laws do not include gender identity.
ILGA-Europe has made the following recommendations “in order to improve the legal and policy situation of LGBTI people in Italy.”
• Marriage equality for same-sex couples
• Depathologization of trans identities
• Automatic co-parent recognition available for all couples
“We are not really known to be the most openly LGBT-friendly country,” Naklé told the Blade. “That’s why it (Pride House) was really important for the community.”
“We want to use the Olympic games — because there is a big media attention — and we want to use this media attention to raise the voice,” he added.
Naklé noted Pride House will host “talks and roundtables every night” during the games that will focus on a variety of topics that include transgender and nonbinary people in sports and AI. Another will focus on what Naklé described to the Blade as “the importance of political movements now to fight for our rights, especially in places such as Italy or the U.S. where we are going backwards, and not forwards.”
Seven LGBTQ Olympians — Italian swimmer Alex Di Giorgio, Canadian ice dancers Paul Poirier and Kaitlyn Weaver, Canadian figure skater Eric Radford, Spanish figure skater Javier Raya, Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson, and Irish field hockey and cricket player Nikki Symmons — are scheduled to participate in Pride House’s Out and Proud event on Feb. 14.
Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood representatives are expected to speak at Pride House on Feb. 21.
The event will include a screening of Mariano Furlani’s documentary about Pride House and LGBTQ inclusion in sports. The MiX International LGBTQ+ Film and Queer Culture Festival will screen later this year in Milan. Pride House Los Angeles – West Hollywood is also planning to show the film during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Naklé also noted Pride House has launched an initiative that allows LGBTQ sports teams to partner with teams whose members are either migrants from African and Islamic countries or people with disabilities.
“The objective is to show that sports is the bridge between these communities,” he said.
Bisexual US skier wins gold
Naklé spoke with the Blade a day before the games opened. The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will close on Feb. 22.
More than 40 openly LGBTQ athletes are competing in the games.
Breezy Johnson, an American alpine skier who identifies as bisexual, on Sunday won a gold medal in the women’s downhill. Amber Glenn, who identifies as bisexual and pansexual, on the same day helped the U.S. win a gold medal in team figure skating.
Glenn said she received threats on social media after she told reporters during a pre-Olympics press conference that LGBTQ Americans are having a “hard time” with the Trump-Vance administration in the White House. The Associated Press notes Glenn wore a Pride pin on her jacket during Sunday’s medal ceremony.
“I was disappointed because I’ve never had so many people wish me harm before, just for being me and speaking about being decent — human rights and decency,” said Glenn, according to the AP. “So that was really disappointing, and I do think it kind of lowered that excitement for this.”
Puerto Rico
Bad Bunny shares Super Bowl stage with Ricky Martin, Lady Gaga
Puerto Rican activist celebrates half time show
Bad Bunny on Sunday shared the stage with Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, Calif.
Martin came out as gay in 2010. Gaga, who headlined the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show, is bisexual. Bad Bunny has championed LGBTQ rights in his native Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
“Not only was a sophisticated political statement, but it was a celebration of who we are as Puerto Ricans,” Pedro Julio Serrano, president of the LGBTQ+ Federation of Puerto Rico, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “That includes us as LGBTQ+ people by including a ground-breaking superstar and legend, Ricky Martin singing an anti-colonial anthem and showcasing Young Miko, an up-and-coming star at La Casita. And, of course, having queer icon Lady Gaga sing salsa was the cherry on the top.”
La Casita is a house that Bad Bunny included in his residency in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, last year. He recreated it during the halftime show.
“His performance brought us together as Puerto Ricans, as Latin Americans, as Americans (from the Americas) and as human beings,” said Serrano. “He embraced his own words by showcasing, through his performance, that the ‘only thing more powerful than hate is love.’”
Drag artists perform for crowds in towns across Virginia. The photographer follows Gerryatrick, Shenandoah, Climaxx, Emerald Envy among others over eight months as they perform at venues in the Virginia towns of Staunton, Harrisonburg and Fredericksburg.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
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